I've been stalking the mailman for several days (not really, but I did have the "Mr. Postman" song going around in my head this morning...) so I was pretty excited to see the letter in the mailbox today. I had a few things that I had to get done before I left, but was out of here pretty quickly.
Ethan's office is near to the Federal Building, so we were able to meet up during his lunch hour for our attempted walk-in. I have been hearing horror stories from online friends who have done the walk-in. Some were turned away, and some were successful after being chewed out, but no one reported it as a pleasant experience.
Fortunately my friend, Maren, reassured me that the staff at our local office are NICE. And she was so right! I will admit it was a little intimidating to put my purse in a bucket and walk through a metal detector, but at least I wasn't wearing a belt - poor Ethan! And Ruth's metal nail file sent the guards at the door rummaging through her purse.... We got through and had our id's checked, then got directions to the correct room.
I had the nicest guy! After he took my prints (electronically) he showed me a huge bulletin board in his office where he likes to post photos of the children he helps. I added to his collection, of course! The staff was quite pleasant, and very efficient. Even with a few people in line ahead of us, we were in and out in probably fifteen minutes.
When I got home I followed up with an email to let the USCIS know that we were fingerprinted early. I have already heard from them that we have not been assigned to an officer yet. It was notated in the system so that when our case is assigned, our officer will know that we went in early. Its looking online like its taking about a week after printing for the I800A to be approved. Here's hoping that at the end of next week we are another huge step forward!
